tonight on "nightline," alternate reality show. on a day of spectacular all-star meltdowns and vows of self-renewal, we ask, what explains the strange rash of celebrities behaving badly? cave question seen. it's not just for neanderthals. if you can kill it and cook it or pick it off a tree, it's fair game to eat. but can the caveman diet really help you drop pounds? we'll take a look. and, finger licking gone. as kfc retires a long-time slogan, we've got a brief

history of the best and worst product tag lines of all time. the good, the bad and the ugly. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," march 1st, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. and we're going to begin tonight with the wages of fame. winning, charlie sheen calls it. by winning. and the public seems to agree. earlier tonight, sheen launched a twitter account describing him as u.n. employed winner. and within hours he attracted nearly half a million followers. but who are the real winners and losers in the fame game in our time? sheen was just one of four celebrities to find himself at the center of a major public scandal today. here's chris connelly. >> reporter: melt foricily, at least, today sought charlie

sheen welcoming new passengers on the celebrity ship wreck, like john galliano, shown the door for this ranlt in a restaurant. >> i love hitler. people like you would be dead tod today. your mothers, your forefathers would be [ bleep ] gassed and [ bleep ] dead. ♪ oh say >> reporter: christinaing a lair ya, capping the "is she okay" 2011 with an arrest for public drunkenness in l.a. lindsay lohan learning how to say hello when it may be time to say good-bye. >> i don't want that to be what i'm known for anymore. >> reporter: and sheen's own unconventional partners. the two women he revealed tonight on abc as his goddesses. the exnanny and the porn star. >> they're an international sensation. these are my girlfriends.

these are the women that i love, that have completed the three parts of my heart. people say it's lonely at the top, but i sure like the view, you know? look at these two. wow. who has it better than me? >> reporter: now, at last, we know exactly what forget you money looks like. since sheen's estimated $1.2 million an episode take home from "two and a half men" has given him a money pile high enough to say whatever he thinks. and do whatever he wants. with whomever he wants. including them. >> i have the wedge. >> reporter: what's the wedge again? >> that's -- wait a minute, part of your wedge is a porn star. you got a drug addict and porn star. >> charlie has all the money in the world. now he's got a lot of time.

if he wants drugs, if he wants a sexual situation. somebody is going to be there to enable him and that's one of the problems with hollywood. it's an enabling place. >> reporter: whether this is a media-fueled meltdown for the ages or just the age-old story of a rich guy talking trash -- >> are you clean right now? >> look at me. duh. drug test don't lie. >> reporter: this isn't how a sitcom star behaves. it is, however, exactly how a reality tv star behaves. >> i did nothing wrong. >> reporter: yes, we ralty tv. where narcissists attack. escalating needless conflict when a camera is present. pursuing pleasure without shame. spewing rage in all directions. >> hit me. >> reporter: sound like anyone to you? for an audience weaned on "real housewives."

and other raucous reality shows. sheen's incendiary self fits right into the new entertainment landscape, where unbridled emotions trump carefully crafted gags. >> just say the word and i'll go. >> reporter: what's more, just as shows sell seductive fantasy, sheen says his here donnism has provided his fans with a not so secret thrill. >> i'm proud of what i've created. it was radical. >> reporter: you're proud of that party moment? why would you be? >> because i expose people to magic, to something they're never going to see in their boring normal lives. i may forget about them tomorrow but they'll live with that memory. >> reporter: not just fattening his wallet with "two and a half men" megabucks but feeding his externalized rage. compelled to watch as he unraveled his sitcomismage. >> all the behaviors that celebrity out there, all the bad

behavior, the public does them, too, but unfortunately, in the celebrity's cases, they happen publicly because we live in a very trans parent society. >> reporter: so, why can't we look away? like gomez from the '60s sitcom "the adams family," we love a train wreck. >> beautiful. beautiful. >> reporter: especially a train wreck that, like sheens, has been turbo charged by 24/7 internet coverage. kicking up a call and response media cycle. case in point, britney spears. having her head shaved in a california salon in 2007. finally leaving her hollywood hills home trapped to a gurney in 2008. all of it treatmented on the web, minute by minute. and, lindsay lohan. caught by x-17 online passed out in west hollywood in the front seat of a car. the kid star turned wild child. now appearing in court more often than judge judy. >> i'm not going to lie about who i am or where i've been.

>> reporter: what soap opera of sitcom wryer could hope to compete with the real thing? >> doesn't matter. the past is the past. >> agreed. >> reporter: yet, while rehab redemption can restore some of the fallen to an honored place in public regard, charlie sheen, on the other hand, is the author of his own imlake. just ask melle gibson the road back from that gets mighty rough indeed. so, will charlie work begin? whether he's rependent or relentless, the answer is question. for the simplest of reasons. he's made others in hollywood a lot of money. >> i put a half a billion in chuck's pocket in $5 billion in the studio's pocket. these are the facts. so, i would ask them, why has nobody got my back? >> reporter: the shot at a back end bonanza will always lure producers willing to withstand a star's eccentric fury. >> reporter: what are you going to sue for? >> tons. little more, little more, ah, add some gold.

>> reporter: question is, will a public that's a little bit complicit in setting sheen off find him relatable or repellant? for charlie sheen, that might be the biggest reality check of all. i'm chris connelly for "nightline" in los angeles. >> a little bit complicit? well, make sure to watch gm gm tomorrow. they're going to take a look at the challenges facing sheen's children and in general, at what can be done to intervene when a loved one is spy ramming out of control. that's "good morning america." thanks to chris comenly for that report. up next, clubs are -- no clubs are required, but the caveman diet is otherwise true to its roots. how red meat and veggies could be the key to a leaner you. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain,

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with terry moran. >> anyone who has ever lingered in a grocery store checkout lane can name a handful of fad diets. each one of them is billed as the diet of the future. but what about the diet of the prehistoric past? so, what was the caveman secret? here's john berman for our series, "you are what you eat." >> reporter: on this normal winter afternoon, i might not be prehistoric, but i am eating like fred flintstone. small piece, please. thank you. why would i say no to steak? i might not be carrying a club, but i am dining like it's 10,000 b.c. i can eat the fat, too? >> yes. >> reporter: i might not be a

caveman, but i am trying the caveman diet. good lord. small piece and then i'm done. what cavemen ate was meat. meat they killed. also vegetables and nuts. what they didn't eat besides processed foods was bread, grains, rice, anything that's a product of agriculture. caveman diet is sort of slang for this meat fest, which people swear by. art started eating this way about 30 years ago. it's a personal question, but how old are you, really? >> really? >> reporter: really? >> 73. >> reporter: 73. you look good for 73. >> thank you. i think biologically i'm not 73. >> reporter: trying to improve the health of his family, he decided that human beings were designed to eat like our caveman ancestors. so, when people call you a caveman, you say -- >> sure.

actually, the human species at that time, large, powerful, bigger brains. they gave us all that we have. >> reporter: when was the last time you had a bagel? >> what's a bagel? >> reporter: actress megan fox is rumored to be a fan. it balances meat with a lot of fresh vegetables. >> i think it's very popular. it very, very popular. i know many who swear by it. >> it's basically saying no processed food. which is positive. the average person should be staying away from those. >> i would say if they're able to maintain that and losing lane meats and watching the fat, then, it's okay for them. >> in today's world, you can't eat like a hunter and gatherer if you're sitting on the couch. >> reporter: and it isn't just the eating. there's a whole lifestyle. art, the author of "the new evolution diet" tries to work out like a caveman, too, which is why he does stuff like this.

pulling your range rover? >> this is hauling a heavy bison out of a pit. you use every single muscle in your body. you're not going to hurt yourself by overdoing repetitions. >> reporter: you're not going to hurt yourself by pulling your truck? >> it's easy. for me. >> reporter: it looks like a lot of things to me. easy is not the one that pops to mind first. but art isn't alone. at gyms across the nation, they're committed to these work youments. no jogging or spinning here. >> so, we're progressing to a push jerk and going to the bar. from our whole past, you know, running and jumping and escaping a predator or being able to go up into a tree to get foot. >> reporter: robb wolf runs a gym like this in california. all this power lifting and climbing, imagine trying to escape from a mastadon. when you go into your gym,

what's different from eqinox. >> people aren't really sure if it's a chop shop or what it. because it's just a warehouse and there are gymnastics rings, pomle horses, kettle bells, cargo nets that people climb. so, there's none of the classic gear that you would see in a regular jim. >> reporter: is the idea to have the caveman workout? >> to a degree. we're not scratching around under bushes and getting poison oak on us. it's trying to make full body functional movements that are fun and because we do it in a group format, i think a lot of the success of my gym and the gyms like it is that there is that tribe element to it. >> we are in park slope in brooklyn, new york. and three. hold. >> reporter: at the gyms, they love the tribe. >> it's transformative. physically, mentally and socially. you come in and you are accepted for who you are. >> reporter: but this tribe isn't just about diets and exercise.

while the workouts look tough, the tribe knows how to play, too. in this cross-fit gym in brooklyn, they had about 70 people in their challenge, eating, living, lounging and partying like our ancestors. so, who are the people really into this? >> you would think it's the lunic fringe, but it's everybody. >> reporter: not people wearing bearskins and carrying clubs? >> no, no. there's a lunatic fringe of that and it's funny for everybody, us included, but that's not the typical person at all. >> reporter: so, next time you see a fit guy in a business suit, grunt to the caveman. i'm john berman for "nightline" in new york. >> thanks to john berman for that. when we come back, we'll take a look at the great tag lines of all time. and some not so great. but all of them unforgettable. >> hello? >> where's the beef?

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it was the catch phrase kfc used to sell countless fried drumsticks over 50 years. finger licking good. well look at the last few months, the restaurant phased it out. but creating such a memorable line, memorable in a good way, that is, isn't always so easy. here's jeremy hubbard with a very brief history of ad slogans. >> hey, look there. didn't i tell you it was finger licking good.

>> reporter: now that that phrase has gone good-bye, it got us to thinking about the great tag lines of all time. >> don't leave home without them. >> where's the beef? >> plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is. >> reporter: these are classics that over time have simply worn out their welcome. >> still going. >> reporter: coke has changed their tag lines dozens over times over the last 125 years. mcdonald's? >> you deserve a break today. >> reporter: it can't seem to make up their mind, either. ♪ it's a good time for the great taste ♪ >> reporter: so many fit people, so much fast food. >> a lot of the major brands have been changing their tag lines year in and year out because they don't mean anything. mcdonald's, i'm loving it? what couldn't you say that about? you can say that about your old pair of nikes. >> reporter: and then, the tag lines that seem to have been, let's just say ill advised from the start. the nominees are, schafer beer,

pushing itself as -- ♪ schafer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one ♪ >> reporter: really? and guinness as a health drink? ♪ gives you strength >> reporter: and who green lighted selling vacuums with this slogan? hard to believe countless man hours, mounds of research and millions of dollars go into this. sometimes the idea just gets lost in translation. as legend has it, coors turn it loose means distress in spanish. and, the grave is exactly where so many of these bad slogans belong. >> nuprin. little, yoel will, different.